Amer Qawas and Hossam Abu Ghazalah, were killed by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Friday, October 18, after they crossed the Jordanian border into occupied Palestine near the Dead Sea, and opened fire at Israeli soldiers. Two IOF soldiers were injured in the attack according to Israeli media, which also reported that the two young Jordanian gunmen who launched the attack were dressed in Jordanian Army uniform.
Jordan Armed Forces issued a statement immediately, refuting the news reports published in Israeli media claiming that Jordanian military personnel crossed Jordan’s western borders as “baseless”. Nevertheless, the statement did not provide further details on the incident.
Shortly after the attack was carried out, pre-recorded videos of Qawas and Abu Ghazalah sending messages to the Jordanian people and condemning their regime’s inaction against Israel, went viral on social media networks. Jordanian grassroots have hailed the attack, which held the title the “Dead Sea Operation” considering it a patriotic deed to support the people of Gaza. As the bodies of Qawas and Abu Ghazalah have been confiscated by the IOF until further notice, Jordanians performed absentee funeral prayers in different parts of Jordan and took to the streets in large numbers to mourn their countrymen.
Jordan’s largest opposition party, the Islamic Action Front party, which is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, issued a statement praising the “Dead Sea Operation”. “This act is not new to the Jordanian people; it is part of a legacy that began with the martyrdom of the hero Kayed al-Abbadiyat and continued with the hero martyr Maher al-Jazi. We must also remember the sacrifices of our Arab army, whose martyrs’ blood remains a witness on the land of Jerusalem and Palestine,” the party said in its statement.
However, the party clarified that the operation was an “individual act” by the attackers, after media reports claimed that Qawas and Abu Ghazalah were members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. The Muslim Brotherhood is on high alert to avoid any attempt by the Jordanian government to attack and demonize them, based on the party’s previous experience of repression.
It is worth noting that the Jordanian government cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood in 2016 and shut down its offices in the country considering the organization “illegal”. For its part, the Muslim Brotherhood perceived the government’s procedure against it as “politically motivated” and an “act of martial law”.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, also hailed the “Dead Sea Operation” in a statement published on Al-Qassam’s website. Abu Obaida described the operation as a “bold and heroic act that once again strengthened the promising Jordanian front.”
“Martyrs Hossam Abu Ghazaleh and Amer Qawas are heroes of the al-Aqsa Flood and will remain an inspiring model for the free Jordanian people and its notable tribes, known for their remarkable stances and outstanding acts of bravery,” Abu Obaida emphasized.
Jordanian and Israeli concerns on border security situation
The shooting incident has further deepened the concerns of Jordanian and Israeli authorities about their ability to secure their mutual border. In the last couple of years, both have been fixated on stopping attempts to smuggle weapons through the shared border, namely weapons coming from Iran and going to Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank.
However, the attack launched by Jordanian truck driver Maher al-Jazi at the King Hussein (Allenby) bridge, in which three Israeli soldiers were killed last September, has aggravated fears of Israel and Jordan that the situation at the border is getting out of control.
Three days after al-Jazi’s attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited an IOF outpost overlooking the Jordan Valley. During his visit, Netanyahu vowed to “construct a stronger barrier” on the 309 kilometer border that Jordan shares with Israel at that time. He also stated: “There is an attempt to smuggle both terrorists and weapons across Jordan into ‘Judea and Samaria’ and into the cities of Israel.”
Netanyahu used the biblical name “Judea and Samaria” to refer to the West Bank in his statement, which exposes the deeply entrenched Zionist and religious myths in the mentality of Israeli politicians, and their complete disregard for their own alleged “two-state solution”.
On the other hand, many Jordanian adult males holding West Bank ID cards, have reportedly come under scrutiny at the Jordanian side of King Hussein border crossing, while some of them were not allowed to cross the borders in the aftermath of al-Jazi’s operation. In the wake of the latest attack, border restrictions are expected to intensify.
